Groenewegen out-sprints Ewan in Tour de Yorkshire opener
Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) took victory on the opening stage of the Tour de Yorkshire, out-sprinting a boxed-in Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge) in the sprint finish in Settle.
The sprint came at the end of a long, wet day in the saddle as a stiff headwind had made it difficult for anyone to make a difference and the final part of the race became a bit of a waiting game as the early break was brought back far from the finish. Sky and Orica-GreenEDGE controlled things until they approached the 12.5km finishing circuit where an uphill first part led to the final intermediate sprint and a descending second part before the road again ramped up towards the finish.
Tom Leezer led the peloton under the flamme rouge followed by Robert Wagner and Groenewegen and Wagner took over just as ONE tried to pass them. However, the two LottoNL-Jumbo rider seemed to be boxed in when first a Sky rider and then a ONE rider and Nikias Arndt (Giant-Alpecin) moved ahead.
Groenewegen stayed calm though and found the room to launch his sprint, easily passing the two leaders. Caleb Ewan was in a perfect position on his wheel but couldn’t find the room to come around, rolling across the line in second place. Arndt had to settle for third.
With the win, Groenewegen takes the first leader’s jersey with a four-second advantage over Ewan. He will try to make it two in a row in stage 2 which has just three small climbs in the first two thirds before a flat final part leads to the finish in Doncaster.
Tour de Yorkshire 2016 – stage 1 results (Beverley – Settle):
| 1 | Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNl-Jumbo) |
5:09:11 |
| 2 | Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge) |
,, |
| 3 | Nikias Arndt (Giant-Alpecin) |
,, |
| 4 | Thomas Boudat (Direct Energie) |
,, |
| 5 | Danny Van Poppel (Sky) |
,, |
| 6 | Floris Gerts (BMC) |
,, |
| 7 | Christopher Lawless (JLT Condor) |
,, |
| 8 | Karol Domagalski (ONE) |
,, |
| 9 | Dion Smith (ONE) |
,, |
| 10 | Bert Van Lerberghe (Topsport Vlaanderen) |
,, |
